


Heartburn

by The_Exile



Category: Star Ocean: The Second Story | Second Evolution
Genre: Alternate Universe, Breaking the Fourth Wall, Fire, Language, M/M, Marriage Proposal, Misunderstandings, Non-Consensual Kissing, Shapeshifting, Spoilers, Valkyrie Profile cameos, same canon as previous fics, second story and second evolution terminology used semi-interchangeably
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-20
Updated: 2017-07-18
Packaged: 2018-10-21 07:39:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 47
Words: 15,672
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10680756
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_Exile/pseuds/The_Exile
Summary: A collection of interconnected Decus X Vesper shorts written for a challenge. Set during the return of the Ten Wise Men to Energy Nede. A slight AU where the other Wise Men find out about Indalecio's betrayal and are plotting to leave, Cyril's own betrayal attempts become more overt and generally everything is going wrong. Unnoticed in their own private little world, Decus and Vesper's bond grows stronger as their world falls apart around them. Surviving the chaos will take great strength but Decus is not afraid of a little wild destruction and Vesper cares only for his pyromaniac paramour's survival.





	1. “Please, come with me.”

"It's no use," Vesper frowns, "There's nowhere in the Universe we can hide from him. Pretty soon, there'll be no more Universe."

"Do not believe his empty boasts and lies," Decus' grin is infectious, as bright and vital as the flames that permanently wreathe his head, "He does not know what true deletion is. He only uses the words. He does not even know destruction."

"The Crest of Annihilation..."

"Is not even a well controlled fire."

"Even if you're right, he programmed us. He could just order us to come straight back. Then he'd wipe our memory, reprogram us, maybe even destroy us. You know what his temper is like these days..."

"With Cyril, mostly. Anyway, he does not control us entirely, or we would not be having this conversation."

Vesper considers this, staring into the cup of strong black tea that his pyromaniac companion brewed for him. 

"We wouldn't be able to take the statue garden with us," he says, referring to the collection of petrification victims he arranged into a beautiful non-flammable quiet space for Decus.

"No, we would not be able to take anything. We would be burning every bridge behind us," Decus grins at the thought, "It will be a fresh start for us. Away from him, from his madness. So we can make our own madness."

Vesper considers how far Indalecio's sanity has deteriorated, how much the grand plan of the Ten Wise Men has collapsed into backstabbing and internal wars. For Decus to be afraid for their lives, for the arsonist of simple tastes to flee a world where he had pretty much free reign to destroy whatever he liked, the situation must have gotten very bad.

"Still, I will miss Ruprecht and Nicolus and Jibril," Decus sighs whistfully.

"As will I," Vesper muses.


	2. “You’re always number one.”

There had always been ten of them and their command structure never changed. They had not been programmed with the idea of such a change. To add to their ranks would only diminish what made them unique, the elite of the elite, to dilute their worth. It would be like adding more to the pantheon of the Archangels of Tria they were named after. Besides, they were made using a very specific process, their functions were all interlinked and Dr Lantis hadn't been given the funding to make more than ten.

Okay, so there were prototypes still in existence here and there. Remiel, for instance, although nobody talked about Remiel around Indalecio Gabriel if they wanted to keep their heads. When Nicolus had done a little digging around in the servers behind their leader's back as a personal request from Vesper, he had found some vague references to a Nelchael and a Cassiel but wherever their AI data was stored, it wasn't anywhere accessible from this galaxy. They didn't talk about the other Lucifer either. That was just the sort of thing he uncovered seemingly every other day, nowadays, the sort of thing he had to keep up with - and always find out first - if he wanted to stay alive. He was fortunate to still be on friendly terms with the Information Trio. 

In public, though, there were Ten Wise Men, and Indalecio was always Wise Man Number One. However, right now, Indalecio wasn't foremost in his thoughts or his priorities. He wouldn't say that, out of the two of them, Decus was in charge. The madman could be very suggestible, except on the days when he was convinced that he was a master strategist, in which case nothing could dissuade him from whatever insane plan he had dreamed up this week. Most of the time, they were more or less equals, and they spoke to and about each other using the propriety shown to those of equal rank. However, this didn't mean that Vesper wouldn't do anything for Decus.

To even conceive of a master other than Indalecio, to think of him in terms other than as Number One, was to go against the laws of his creation, his purpose for existence. Seeing as the entire context of his mission was a lie, this didn't really upset Vesper all that much. 

Did Decus feel the same way?


	3. "I can't do this."

Actually going against Indalecio's wishes was a lot more of a problem than merely thinking rebellious thoughts, or even finding ways to subvert his plans from the inside by slightly changing an aspect in a way that still fulfilled the criteria. Vesper understood now why Cyril was such a scheming back-stabber all the time; well, it was also his fundamental nature as 'Lucifer', but mostly it was because the direct approach didn't work against Indalecio. 

There were failsafes in everyone's programming. Although there was nothing 'safe' about them, for the one who was hit by them, the innocent bystander or, probably, the rest of the immediate environment.

He lost control of his weapon systems, then, when he still resisted, his limbs. His micro-missile launcher fired in random directions, sending volleys everywhere in a shower of haphazard destruction. The targeting systems built into his usual ocular filters went haywire, sending lines of nonsense code and painfully bright red flashing lights across his vision. His jets snatched his feet out from under him, dangling him upside down and slamming his head against walls, before his tractor beam randomly fired and propelled him into the opposite wall. If it wasn't so painful for everyone involved, it would have been an amusing sight. Lucifer laughed, of course, and called him a faulty, useless piece of junk. At least it implied that the serpent didn't understand what had happened, thought Vesper as he stormed off, muttering something about asking Camael and Zadkiel for repairs.

In truth, he did ask Ruprecht to heal him and he also asked Nicolus for advice. The hacker had already experienced the problem himself - it had almost killed him - and he was working on a solution. The two people who were most dangerous if they went out of control would be the first to receive updates on his progress, of course.

Decus had malfunctioned as well. His lack of control had been even less subtle and even more destructive. Consdering how much self-control Cyril thought Decus had to start off with, he probably didn't even notice the difference, but Decus did. 

He accidentally hurt Vesper. 

Decus could control his powers when he wanted to, make the tiniest of flames to warm and comfort rather than kill. He only ever did so when Vesper was around. 

It had taken Vesper forever to convince Decus to allow himself forgiveness.


	4. 'I won't let you.'

"I don't want you to hurt yourself any more," said Vesper, stroking Decus' frizzy fire-red hair. His head still felt too cold. The huge, stocky man was shivering. He had been muttering to himself in a delirious fever for the last half an hour. The cup of tea Vesper had made him shook in his hand, most of it going down his shirt. Vesper helped him wipe it off before it cooled. 

Vesper had found him collapsed on the floor in the middle of their guardian's chamber, just in front of the stairs between the fifth and sixth tier of Fienal Tower. The pyromancer had been suppressing his powers too much. Unlike the others, Decus had more trouble turning his powers off than sustaining them.The fires were a part of his essential nature, his life force. Whatever had been done to him to create the Ten Wise Men's terrifying strategic weapon, they had engraved his heraldic runes somewhere core to his soul, and had made them completely indelible. The fire-souled entity in Nedian skin and bone had exhausted himself so much that his powers stopped fighting back at their suppression and instead turned themselves off.

It had nearly killed him.

He had done it to avoid the possibility of accidentally hurting Vesper again. 

"You don't need to follow me where I'm going," said Vesper, "And you mustn't."

"To go along with his plan might also hurt you," Decus rasped, his strange, rolling, high-pitched accent even more pronounced than usual. 

"If you succeeded in breaking his control, would you do anything different with your life? Honestly? Considering what he always asks you to do?" 

Decus grinned and looked up into his partner's eyes. The fire was already returning, "No. No, I suppose I would not." 

"Then why bother?"

"He might ask me to do something different one day."

Vesper considered this as he sipped his own tea. Decus' hand had stopped shaking. The tea was going cold, so he lit a fire around it until it started bubbling violently. Only when it began evaporating into steam did he drink it.

"Michael, I'm not letting you out of this room until you're able to destroy my tea set like you usually do," said Vesper, slipping into usage of their formal Sage titles to show that he was in a serious mood.

"I could burn the lock off. And the door."

"Prove it."


	5. “Maybe I’m just crazy.”

Decus was mentally not well. He admitted it, Vesper admitted it. Nicolus and Ruprecht had analysed him several times, psychologically, mechanically and symbologically, but they were still unsure whether the mental instability had led to the chaotic nature of his powers or the other way round. The way he had been built as a Wise Man was just too different, they assumed, he was too different from a normal, mortal humanoid and their thought processes. He was closer to an elemental spirit in nature than a Nedian. Even his body couldn't contain his fire; one particularly bad surge in power had burnt all the flesh off one side of his face. Now he had more control and had been granted more cybernetic augmentations, constantly projecting force fields to protect him from his own magic, but his head and hands were still permanently alight. It did nothing to halt his gradual defence into, if not insanity, then a definite non-humanoid thought pattern.

Insanity meant loss of control over his own will and actions. It made him a danger to himself and, more importantly, to Vesper. Now it was combined with the effects of his attempt to break free of Indalecio's control.


	6. “I’m not even sorry.”

"How can you claim to feel love and yet still do what you do?" asked Filia.

Decus blinked and stared at the AI. Just as Indalecio was more or less identical to their creator in personality, Filia was the digitally stored personality of their creator's daughter. Unlike the others, however, Filia was not permitted a physical body, or any other means by which she could possibly get into danger, betray Indalecio or escape the facility. Her purpose was to be an idealised copy of Dr Lantis' daughter so that he never needed to actually deal with his grief. 

Nicolus was a good enough hacker to free her and he received endless vindictive pleasure at his boss' tantrums whenever he did so - especially when she decided to visit the second least approved-of Wise Man.

"I am tired of doing what I do."

"I don't mean working for my father. I mean, doing what you do in general. Burning. Destroying. Killing."

Decus grinned and showed off sharp teeth, "How do we love our pets and still eat steak? How do we love our country and kill thousands in the name of defending it?"

"Those situations aren't the same as your completely random arson, Decus. Stop pretending you're too crazy to understand what I mean."

"I understand you perfectly, Filia, but I am a simple man at heart, and I will not join the desperate race not to look a hypocrite. My double standards just prove that my love for Vesper is truly greater than my love for anything else," he frowned, "Except maybe fire. If Vesper asked me to care more about the rest of the world, that would be different, but he hasn't. And my fires are not random, you simply do not have the artistic talent needed to understand the patterns. Now, would you like a cup of tea? How does a pure AI drink tea, by the way? Should I go and ask Nicolus for the machine code for a cup of tea, or do you have virtual stimulants of your own that you would recommend?"

Filia was placed under heavier security restrictions as a result of this visit. Nobody saw much of her for a long time. Not long afterwards, Filia managed to escape from the facility altogether. Nicolus had been digging into his own copy of her code and now understood what her true function was.


	7. “Honestly, just stop it.”

"I'm sorry," said Decus, grinning like a child caught with his hand in a cookie jar, "Maybe I did get a little carried away."

"You broke a data memory sphere," said Vesper, folding his arms and glaring at the once brightly glowing blue sphere ringed with light and rotating on a pole, "That shouldn't even be possible."

"I was making up for yesterday, like you recommended." 

"I said you should keep your fires up so that you don't get sick from letting them get low again, not that you should try and kill everyone in the building. Do you want to corrupt or erase something important? Some of us are mostly data."

Decus pouted, "Well, Cyril should not leave them in front of our door like that. They are too close to the blast range of my Spicule, and they are out in the open, where anyone can use them. I see intruders using them often. One day they will overwrite something important."

"Cyril will go spare about this, you know."

"Then we shall fix it. Save points are mostly glass and symbological energy, so what we do is make a large fire to melt the glass, then produce a lot of heat energy using a..."

"One day I'm worried there'll be a situation you can't possibly solve by setting it on fire," Vesper frowned, "And we won't have the others to help us, if we run away."

"That's why I say we should all run away together," said Decus, "Ruprecht, Jibril and Nicolus listen to you. Shigeo, Marsilio and Berle listen to me..."

"I wanted this to just be you and me."

Decus snorted and rolled his eyes. Vesper sighed.

"At least try and not get yourself hurt," said Vesper, "The hottest flames can burn themselves out the fastest."


	8. “I believe in you.”

"Your command link is malfunctioning," said Cyril. It wasn't a question. Decus had given one very simple, unambiguous command, near impossible to misinterpret even if you had the intellect of a berserk killer cyborg. Go to Fun City, he had told them, kill everyone there, with the violent dissidents who were researching dangerous weapons as a priority, smash the simulation equipment in particular and then burn the place to the ground. Shigeo and Marsilio had followed the orders but Berle had almost immediately chased off after some scientist who had escaped.

"He was using his initiative," said Decus, "The scientist was involved in the weapons research. Also, I forgot to say that they should not pursue anyone who escaped."

"You 'forgot'? I thought you were a master strategist," Cyril pursed his thin lips into a sneer, "Besides, I thought you ordered that nobody should escape, nobody should survive. Your squad utterly failed their mission because they were divided."

"Eh, the enemy's a lot stronger than we predicted," Decus shrugged.

"So now you blame the intelligence team for your mistakes? I'm sure Vesper will be thrilled to hear that you're passing the buck onto him."

"Eh? Don't tell him that!" Decus snapped, actually riled by the Lucifuge's taunts for the first time in months of constant baiting.

"No matter. A real strategist would be able to factor in such a thing as a stronger enemy than usual."

"If I'd been fighting them personally..."

"Michael, you are not a strategist. As I have explained time and time again, that was a misprint. You are, in fact, a strategic weapon," Cyril sighed, "The only reason you are in charge of anything is because you were accidentally programmed with a command link, and now that is malfunctioning, like everything else in this place. Haniel has his own team to co-ordinate and cannot pull you out of any more disasters."

"Then why do you not disable my command link yourself, eh? Oh, I remember, it's because Indalecio no longer trusts you with any responsibility at all!" Decus shrieked, his already high-pitched hiss of a voice rising several octaves, "Well, you can take out your frustrations on someone else! Good day!"

Decus slammed the door behind him with enough force to demolish an ordinary door, then, for good measure, lit a small fire near it.

"Well, you told him," said Vesper.

"I am only allowed such insubordination because everyone believes me to be insane or idiotic anyway," Decus grumbled as they walked down the corridor together.

"I believe in you," said Vesper.

"You are biased," snapped Decus.

Vesper's face darkened, "Do you think I'm humouring you? That I only take pity on you because I love you? Or maybe the other way round? Decus, I'm going to forgive you because I know you've had a bad day, but..."

Decus broke out into a cackle, "Hah! You finally admitted out loud and to my face that you love me!"

Vesper blushed, "Hey, how about hearing it back?"


	9. “Don’t be an ass.”

"Decus, don't take it out on Berle," Vesper sighed. He sounded very tired. There must have been yet another emergency meeting on the higher floors. Michael wasn't invited to the meetings despite technically being Haniel's equal. As far as he could tell from his partner's comments, he wasn't missing anything. They got nothing done except for staring at each other suspiciously while the entire mission continued to fall apart around them. 

"I don't know what you're talking about," Decus shrugged, staring at his tea a little more intently than strictly necessary.

"Metatron's armour was so hot it burned him when he tried to pick it up."

"Metatron takes off his armour?"

"You know damn well that he takes off his armour, and that he has biological parts with pain receptors to heat. You're also the only one who both knows enough to locate his armour when he isn't in it and has access to strong enough fire magic to heat up the armour," said Vesper, "And don't tell me Shigeo did it. His lasers are powerful but we're talking about our defence specialist here. It would take something exceptional to get through the meta-shields he leaves on his armour to protect it when he's out of it. Besides, you have a motive."

"You think I'm pissed at him about the command module failing? Well, it failed on his end, not mine, but it wasn't really his fault his stuff doesn't work."

"His 'stuff' that he maintains obsessively?" Vesper stroked his chin, "I mean no disrespect - this is only a testament to the forces you control - but your equipment has the added strain of withstanding your fire symbology, and you don't exactly spend your time in the repair workshop."

"Ah, I can just weld it back together!"

Vesper looked at Decus' poorly maintained cyberware, some of which was visibly melted, and shuddered. He still gets on perfectly well without it working, he told himself, and you know damn well why it's really broken.

"Whatever the case, taking it out on your subordinates makes you look spiteful and unproffessional. Like Cyril," he added, leaning in to whisper the words. Decus' normal temperature was high almost to the point of pain when Vesper brushed against his skin, and he always smelled so interesting, "You're better than Cyril. And you don't need to do this in order to hide. I'll help you."


	10. “Who were you with?”

"Don't pretend it's nothing," said Decus, his voice threatening to rise to a screech, "If it was nothing, why do you not involve me? Why do you sneak into our guardian chamber late at night? Why can I hear the voices of girls?"

Vesper could have sworn Decus was asleep. He snored like a dragon, talked to himself in a demonic-sounding gibberish and sometimes started fires in his sleep during what Vesper presumed were violent nightmares. Apparently there was a very small time gap between 'asleep' and 'awake and somehow sneaking up on Vesper unseen despite almost certainly being on fire'. 

"Exactly. Girls. You know I'm not interested in women."

"Then why do you not tell me what you were talking about?"

"I'm allowed a private life, you know," Vesper glared at him, "You don't repeat everything you speak of with Filia."

"She threatens to tell Indalecio if I don't keep my mouth shut about her personal business," said Decus, "But I know it was not Filia, or Jibril, or even Remiel. What other women come here but intruders?"

"Okay, I admit it," Vesper sighed, "I was speaking to two of the repeat intruders - Chisato Madison and Welch Vineyard."

"You're on speaking terms with the intruders now?" Decus frowned, "Wait... Chisato? You revived Chisato? With our depleting stock of Stone Cures?"

"I had to. She has information. A lot of it. And Welch knows even more surprising things, the sort of things that mortals just shouldn't be involved in - even we haven't been involved in those circles for millennia now!"

"This does not explain why you are negotiating with the enemy," Decus folded his arms, "We are dissatisfied with our leader, yes, but that is no reason to go as far as defecting!"

"Oh, don't be so melodramatic. I'm doing nothing of the sort. I just have my own information networks that I don't like people knowing about. Do you think all Nicolus' sources are clean either? As for Cyril..."

"I do not wish to see such people in our chamber!" hissed Decus, "This is not just for loyalty, or even for security, but I am worried about you! They are powerful - many of them together have a chance to defeat you on your own - and they might also steal our tea set!" 

"And you're not jealous at all? Not in the slightest bit worried about your position?" Vesper laughed, "Who exactly on the enemy's side do you think I would cheat on you with, Decus? The intruders have no men mature or burly enough match my tastes."

Decus frowned, "Well, there was that man on the other planet we visited once... Adray, I believe his name was..."

"Interesting. I shall remember your opinion on Adray Lasbard," said Vesper, "I always did wonder how he learned to Spicule or why you suddenly wanted me to grow a beard..."

"It is not like that at all! I swear!" Decus waved his arms around, trailing fire. Vesper cackled.


	11. “Please talk to me.”

"We never talk to each other any more like we used to," said Vesper.

"Cyril is monitoring us more closely."

"Cyril's always been monitoring us more closely than we think. Since I told you about the less savoury aspects of my information network, I've spotted you going off to a lot more private conversations of your own." 

"I have my own friends, you know. Not everyone hates me because they are jealous of my burning passion."

"Is it something to do with the Church of Tria?" guessed Vesper. His partner's flares of passion extended to religious inspiration occasionally and he had noticed a lot more apocalyptic sentiment among the Church whenever he was allowed out on secret expeditions into the towns. 

Decus shook his head, "Further afield. If we are to leave, we will need to travel far, otherwise we will be caught in the shockwave when the Crest goes off."

"I can't think of anywhere far enough. Not where they'd talk to you, anyway, unless you mean... Decus, have you been crossing the Seraphic Gate?"

"Not crossing, per se, but I know people who could make a big enough hole in the fabric to let me through if it came down to it."

"And you didn't tell the rest of us? You didn't think this information that could help us survive might be important for us to know?"

"My friend, he does not like his business broadcast halfway across the Universe," said Decus.

"Mm-hm..." Vesper gave him a sceptical glance, "Well, don't forget that there are some very powerful and dangerous things on the other side of the Seraphic Gate. Some of them have plans for this Universe that are even worse than Indalecio's."

Decus cackled, "Oh, we are practically kin, my friend and I!"

This wasn't very reassuring.


	12. “I can’t trust you.”

"Eh, what are you talking about?" there was an edge to Decus' voice, a more pronounced hiss than usual. He didn't normally take that tone with Vesper. 

"I've worked out exactly who you were contacting, and I don't like it," replied his partner, "If you're going to mess with things like that, don't do it in my guardian chamber."

"It's your guardian chamber now?"

"It certainly isn't yours if you're going to use it for such reckless projects. Don't you remember what happened last time?"

"You still have not explained what you're talking about."

"You've been talking to Surtr," said Vesper, in a way that made it abundantly clear that it wasn't a question, "One of the realms that the Seraphic Gate separates from ours is the combined worlds surrounding Yggdrassil. And yes, I know there are others, and for all I know you could have made contact with one of them and not told me about it. Howevever, I've also heard from Welch, who has contacts within the Valkyries..."

"Aha, so you're quoting your own dirty sources!"

"... I heard from Welch that there has been disruption to the balance of that world. I thought it might be the result of a test of the Crest of Annihilation that went too well, so I followed it more closely, but I realised that it was coming from somewhere within the realm's own laws. Combined with you making shady deals... I put two and two together..."

"Hmph, a long stretch!"

"If you are making deals with Surtr, I need to know. The last time you were in contact with the fire giants, you got yourself possessed. If I hadn't saved you - risking my own life and being forced to rely on allies outside the Ten Wise Men - you would have caused as much devastation as Indalecio."

"I remember, yes, but I have learned from my mistakes," Decus folded his arms, "I have reinforced my psychic defences and will not fail again."

"If you're even trying a stunt like that, you haven't learned a thing," argued Vesper, "Your own self was almost destroyed last time, Decus, and I... I don't want to lose you, not to someone like that."

"We cannot win without outside aid. We have nowhere to go if we flee." 

"Why don't you trust us to make it on our own?"

"I don't know. Why don't you?"


	13. "I need you, though."

"I need you, Decus. And not just because we've always been together. Not just because we've learned to fight together and the only way to survive is to carry on doing the same thing," said Vesper, a hint of desperation in his normally calm voice, "I'll admit it, partly I'm talking to more people outside the Ten Wise Men so I can find out who I am other than your counterpart on the fourth floor, but all it's really shown me is that I still want to be with you even if I leave Fineal Tower and never return. I think I would seek you out even if we died and were reincarnated, and our bond is so strong that we would find each other again."

"Well, of course you would find me. When I reincarnate, I will be exactly the same," said Decus, a genuinely confused look on his face, "This is who I am. Our spirits cannot be extinguished, we beings of fire."

"I wish I was as sure of myself as you," said Vesper, "I'm mostly cybernetics built by Indalecio. I'm not sure if I could even leave without handing most of my body back."

Decus shrugged, "We're marked for death if we desert him anyway, we might as well steal from him as well. In for a fol, in for... more fol, is what they say. I think," suddenly, he stopped, frowned and stared at Vesper suspiciously, "Hey, why are you thinking about this so much? Are you gonna malfunction some more?"

"Not just 'more'," said Vesper, "My link with you is malfunctioning. You know, the programming that specifically helps us co-ordinate our plans when we fight together."

"Is that why we took so much damage repelling the intruders yesterday? I was worried our combat systems in general are malfunctioning."

Vesper shook his head, "I checked with Nicolus. He has one with Ruprecht and it's also been on the blink. It's a lot more serious when it happens to the intelligence team, as their data stream can get scrambled or broken, but..."

 

"But you are preparing for the day when we are no longer linked," said Decus, "To make sure we have a stonger bond that will endure."

Vesper nodded. Decus grasped his hands, the heat not even enough to burn the coating off the cybernetic augmentations.

"What we have is not just mechanical," he promised.


	14. "Is that my shirt?"

Vesper looked down in disbelief at the charred scraps of black cloth that were the only thing remaining of the tunic he normally wore under his clothes. He was bare-chested except for a few armour plates that covered integrated weapons systems and the power unit for a force field. Although he appeared to be giving Vesper one of those unconvincing bemused looks that reminded the cyborg of a puppy sat in the middle of a heap of shredded toilet roll, he also didn't think the ruined shirt was what Decus actually kept his eyes on. That smouldering amber gaze wandered over Vesper's impressive build, his muscles heavily toned from a lifetime of combat and several cybernetic improvements.

"I know it was you, Decus, it has mithril weaving and you melted straight through it," Vesper's eagle-like gaze bored into his partner's eyes, forcing Decus to concentrate.

"It was not my intention," Decus replied, "I was attempting to wash it."

"... Why? Ruprecht does the washing. He can cast Noah. You weren't trying to wash it in fire, were you?"

"He does not heat the water up enough to effectively remove stains. I saw several small stains," he said, "And I have been working to overcome my fear of water. Making the tea does not allow me to handle enough water at once. I am elementally weak to it, not allergic to it. If I could conquer my fears, I could fight those who would try and use my weaknesses against me, and also wash my beautiful hair..."

"I didn't think you even had normal hair. How DOES your hair survive your head being on fire?" Veper scratched his head. Then his expression darkened, "And why have you succeeded in distracting me? This isn't an important enough cause to sacrifice my clothes!"  
"They're just clothes. You need to change more often anyway, you smell funny."

"Says the man on fire," Vesper rolled his eyes, "Decus, those aren't just shirts, they're symbology-woven traditional monk's robes, so I can't just replace them and I'm very vulnerable in battle without them."

"You should fireproof them better, then," said Decus.

"... Here's an idea, why don't we practice on Cyril's clothes in future?"

"But it amuses me when he is dirty."

"I might take that wording the wrong way, you know," Vesper grinned, "Um, what are you doing?"

Decus did not stop undoing his robes. Once he had taken off the belt and undone the clasps, he let the garment slip onto the floor. Then he pulled off his shirt, "You can borrow mine. I fireproof mine properly. They have to survive me wearing them, after all."

"But then what will you..." 

Vesper caught a glimpse of Decus' body, covered in fire runes, almost as powerfully built as his own but a lot more natural, as much as something could be called 'natural' when it was wreathed in flame but did not burn, and realised that he didn't care as much as he thought he did.


	15. "Don't be fucking rude."

Decus and Vesper watched via the security terminal as the ambassador practically ran through the portal, trying to maintain a stony dignity but with evident fear, or at least surprise, in his eyes. Decus was cackling so hard that his eyes watered and his sides hurt. His partner was not so amused. This was surprising, as he wasn't the one in the cell. Vesper snapped his fingers to dismiss the holographic window. He wasn't even supposed to bring up the window in front of the prisoner, who was not permitted knowledge of the world outside his cell, and he would be given the same punishment if it was suspected that he aided Decus. No, they would both be punished more severely, accused of an even more serious conspiracy, because Cyril always took exception to anything that involved the two of them together.

"I still don't understand why you did it," he told Decus, sounding more sad than angry. 

"It caused him to leave. You will thank me for this. He is scum," Decus spat, "He makes Cyril look like an angel."

"I don't like him either, but he's a very powerful potential ally, and now he'll probably come back with reinforcements and much more hostile intentions."

"He faces three-way conflict on his home territory. He would not spend his forces on such an unnecessary conflict."

"I'm still suspicious that you know so much about the situation over there," said Vesper, "You certainly didn't learn vital military intelligence about Loki from Odin."

"Indalecio could have asked Surtr for help."

"Thank Tria he didn't, considering what his presence here might do to you!" Vesper said, "Did Surtr tell you to attack Loki? You didn't tell me he was already giving you orders."

"I do not take orders from him. We simply have the same interests. Do not look at me like that! The Inferno King would destroy this world properly, as he is fated to, so that it may be reborn. Loki would reduce this world to something truly evil, something that only he could rule entirely. Do you understand the difference?"

"I don't want either of them here."

"Then who do you want here? Lenneth, maaybe?" Decus suddenly shrieked, "Because she is one of your new friends?"

Vesper's face hardened, his voice dangerously quiet, "I am not the one whose alliances threaten us all."

He stormed out, leaving Decus truly alone.


	16. “So, it was you.”

"Someone hacked into Indalecio's private server last night," said Vesper. Decus blinked at him, his face showing a lack of emotion that was suspicious in itself. He had been waiting in his cell for a cup of tea all day but Vesper hadn't made him one. Vesper always made him tea, even when he was seriously angry. 

"Sounds like something Nicolus would do."

"Except that Nicolus is the one who reported it..."

"Doesn't prove a thing."

"... And whoever hacked the server attempted to power up the Crest of Annihilation, not shut it down."

"Whoa, they must be a real madman! Maybe it was Shigeo."

"I can't believe you would go so far as to foist the blame on your subordinates, Michael."

"Eh? Are you implying that I did such a crazy thing?"

"You've never pretended to be sane, and all you've talked to me about lately is death leading to rebirth, or ending the world in the correct, responsible way. One would think you intended to hijack the Apocalypse for yourself rather than preventing it."

"Okay, so say for a moment that I did do this... just as a theoretical exercise..." Decus sighed, "That I have been improving the subtlety of my symbology to the extent that I could alter the patterns of major symbol, and that I have been working on overcoming my distaste for elements other than fire... can you at least understand why it would be a good idea for me to do that?"

"Well, if it were me, I'd say that I've given up trying to do it any other way. That I want to at least end the world cleanly if it's going to end."

"Or maybe because I'm still a Wise Man at heart, and I don't pretend to be otherwise, that I don't really give a damn about most of the Universe and would be faintly amused if it burned," rasped Decus.

"That, and if I was speaking as Decus, I would also admit that I was still being just a little manipulated by Surtr."

"Or maybe that our interests genuinely align. And also," Decus' eyes bored into his with the intensity of a magnifying glass reflecting the sun in a burning ray, "My boyfriend has been speaking a lot of reincarnation, so I am reassured that he would survive it."

"That's what you got from our talk?"

Decus nodded, grinning insanely.


	17. “I need to go.”

Vesper had been agonising all morning over how to break it to Decus gently.Even after seeing the man like this, hating everything that he had become and having no choice to leave in order to get away from him before he went spare (not that they could do anything useful while one of them was still stuck in a cell), he couldn't bring himself to hurt Decus any more than he had to. It would be like hurting himself. Even though the mechanical link was pretty much dead these days.

He thought up excuses, hating the idea of lying to Decus and wondering if he should at least make an attempt to actually carry out his promises. He was going to find outside help in order to break Decus out. No, Decus would probably say he had them right where he wanted them, that nobody suspected him while he was in a cell, because of course Decus was a strategic genius. Maybe he could go and look for a technician to fix their malfunctioning parts? No, Decus would be worried about him if he mentioned further faults. And whatever he said, he would be accused of going off to meet those friends of his that Decus had taken particular exception.

No, best just to admit that he thought they needed time apart. That was normal for lovers, right? It didn't mean your relationship was breaking up. Not always, anyway....

When he finally opened the door to the visitor's room, Decus was already gone. He hadn't even triggered any alarms. A very precise hole was burned through the back wall of his cell - the meter-thick mithril wall. 

Vesper swore at himself for a fool. If you can hack a server from your jail cell, you can escape from it. The security systems were probably reprogrammed to completely ignore him. Also, if you can control your symbology to the extent that you can make improvements to a major crest behind the owner's back, you can use it to leave a room without anyone noticing. 

He didn't bother to check the security feed. A brief, frenzied search of the building on foot revealed that Decus was nowhere. As Vesper had suspected, his partner had already left. 

He had forgotten who was really the strong one in the relationship, and now he was too late. He had missed his chance to say sorry.


	18. “Just stay with me.”

Decus twitched. The message had come suddenly and popped up directly over his field of view in a primitive window, almost causing him to pitch headlong down a ravine. The emergency broadcast setting, he recognised. He hadn't even realised his link to Vesper still worked. Pain accompanied its activation, a significant power drain that left his legs feeling like jelly, but something still got through.

A message from him.

"Please don't leave me," another message, popping up over the original one, slightly misaligned. Static crackled, giving him a blinding headache, then the images broke up and the connection broke off. Decus dropped to his knees and swore until the pain running through his synapses cleared.

"What should I do?" he hissed, staring up at the face of Tria-In-Chains. It was this icon of the Goddess, in this mountaintop shrine that was no longer maintained except by pilgrims, that Decus had gone on a pilgrimage to. Tria in her form as the Chained One represented the free, pure spirit of creation conflicting with the corruption in mortal hearts and the laws of society and economy. There was always conflict in this form, and Decus hoped that She would bring him some inspiration in the battle that raged in his heart.

Her stony gaze did not shift, her spirit as a Muse silent.

"Oh, do not look at me like that!" he snapped, "Your creations always have their own destruction in their nature. It would unnatural for them not to! Your beasts eat each other, fight and desperately mate so their legacy doesn't die with them and their short lives..."

"What, you call me unnatural now?" he shrieked, "I did not choose to be like this, stuck between two natures. My chains are like your own."

Why does nobody else see them?


	19. “You can trust me.”

Vesper hadn't really been expecting a response. Not because he didn't think Decus would respond to him - whether or not the fiery-tempered man was still angry with him, his lack of impulse control would prompt some kind of reaction, even if it was to yell at Vesper - but he didn't think there was any kind of communication channel between them that actually worked. Their twin link had shorted out again and they couldn't use their regular communicators in case Cyril was intercepting the signal. 

"How are you getting through to me?" Vesper's voice came out a whisper, rather harsher than he meant. He had only just escaped from a meeting with Cyril, in which he had been asked some very awkward questions about Decus' exact method of escape from his cell. The fact that Vesper genuinely didn't know was no excuse as far as the Lucifuge was concerned. Decus had chosen a particularly bad time to suddenly start talking to him again. He had been allowed out of the meeting only because Nicolus was using enough of the bandwidth to make his hurried excuse about needing to report back to the intelligence team sound plausible.

As it turned out, the two events weren't a coincidence after all. Nicolus had assisted in both strengthening and masking the communication channel between Decus and Vesper. There had been a brief conversation between Nicolus and Decus, during which the aging intelligence gathering unit had been mistaken for the voice of Tria. 

Vesper thanked the old man, who replied that his motives had been purely selfish, as the whole team tended to suffer from the trickle-down morale loss whenever he fell out with Decus. Vesper hadn't thought it happened that often. He didn't believe that a mind as shrewd as Nicolus' had absolutely no aspirations of his own that involved double-crossing his superior officer. He certainly had enough information stored away that he didn't bother telling Vesper until it became crucially urgent. Besides, you couldn't trust anyone in the Tower these days... Nicolus had done a good thing for him, though, and it would be ungrateful to labour the point.

"So, what is your answer?" he asked Decus.

"I still love you, of course, you idiot," Vesper heard the sharp-toothed grin in his voice, "But I'm afraid I must follow your order, even though you insist we are equals. I am leaving until you do not consider me a threat to you." 

Vesper sighed and facepalmed. He wondered which of them was the biggest idiot and the one least able to trust the only allies he had left.

We certainly are equals, he thought bitterly. Equally stupid. Equally paranoid. Equally falling apart at the seams as one cybernetic part after the other malfunctioned. Nicolus must be incredibly strong-willed to recover enough to help us as well, he mused. He was practically a digital life form, he relied so much on machines. 

Maybe it was time to trust both Nicolus and Decus after all.


	20. “Alright, I love you.”

"I love you too," Nicolus relayed back to Decus, "You're crazy and unpredictable, you snore like a blender full of hot coals, you're probably still betraying me to a fire giant who you won't admit is more in control than you are, and who you may or may not be sleeping with for all I know, but I'm just as bad, and it's nothing compared to what I'm prepared to endure for you. So can you please come back, or at least let me come over to where you are, so we can run from our problems together like the fools we are? I'd really rather hear your voice again. At the moment I can sort of half hear your words in Nicolus' voice and occasionally Ruprecht's voice, and it's getting creepy," he coughed to clear his throat, then said, fully in his own voice, "Is that everything, then?"

Vesper nodded, "Let me know straight away, as soon as you get a reply of any kind."

"That was sort of sweet," said Ruprecht, "I knew you guys were dating but I didn't imagine real romance."

"What did you imagine, pray tell?" Vesper folded his arms and glared at the youngest Wise Man. There was probably supposed to be something symbolic in the oldest and youngest working so closely together. This was the same mind that had decided to give everyone Archangel-themed codenames, a mind clearly obsessed with theatricality.

Ruprecht blushed, "Well, you know... things I probably don't want to know about. The sort of thing Nicolus doesn't let me look up any information about even when it's an important mission."

"Under what circumstance would THAT be an important... never mind, I don't think I want to know either. So glad you two are enjoying the show."

"Jibril too," admitted Ruprecht.


	21. “I’m sorry, but no.”

"I am sorry, but my heart just isn't in it any more."

Decus stopped, expression contemplative, and waited for a response. It came in the shuddering of the boulder he perched on, the rumbling of the ground under his feet, the gurgling of a reserve of lava that shouldn't have been there. It broke off with a sudden crescendo at the end, the earth beneath him angered, threatening an eruption.

"No, I do not intend to betray you. I simply cannot dedicate myself to your cause and truly be honest with myself. I will not side with your enemies, and when the Ragnarok comes, I shall fight by your side," he told the unseen voice, "But I cannot give you my all. I cannot be your host, or be the first spark for the fire..."

"So you were being possessed by him again," said Vesper. Decus' head whipped around sharply and he glared at his partner.

"No, I said I was the host," he snapped, "I am stronger now. I can do this and keep myself. But not when I can't make it the most important thing to me."

The ground shook even more furiously, almost knocking Decus off his perch. Heat welled up from vents that didn't exist. Apart from shifting his weight a little, he refused to react except with words in the same tone of voice.

"Yes, as a matter of fact, this man is the reason my heart wavers," he announced, "The one who matters to me as much as fire itself. You should know, Surtr, love is a flame itself. What, have you never loved?"

Suddenly, he sniffed the air and whirled around. He jumped from his perch, throwing himself at Vesper and knocking him off his feet and across the canyon, away from the jet of superheated steam that erupted from a geyser that wasn't there a second ago. 

"No, I cannot let you hurt this man," Decus apologised, his breath coming out in rags, hot on Vesper's face but the heat was not uncomfortable for his partner, not like the oppressive temperatures rising in the canyon that was once a peaceful haven for birds. 

"If you hurt him again, I will fight you," Decus promised. Then he stood up, dusted himself off and offered Vesper a hand. It was large and rough, easily able to pull him up.

Their business was finished here.


	22. “Will you help me?”

Vesper didn't let go of his hand once he had stood up. Flames burned brightly around Decus' hand but it no longer hurt Vesper. He wasn't sure if it was because he was finally becoming more fireproof, if Decus was gaining so much control over his flame that he could shield someone who was right in the middle of it, or a combination of both. All he felt was the comforting warmth.

They continued down the valley for a while, leaning on each other's shoulders. Both of them were exhausted from the encounter with Surt, Decus from the mental strain of fully rejecting the Inferno King's call, a command that the primal, essential side of him was wired to automatically respond to, Vesper from almost being killed. He also had no idea where he was and he got the impression Decus didn't either. The being of fire had been following his soul, not a map. He knew they were far away from Fienal Tower, though. Even with Nicolus' enhanced communications wavelength, he could barely detect any signal at all from their base of operations. They were alone and weakened. They only had each other to rely upon. 

It was enough.


	23. “You’re a terrible cook.”

To be fair on Decus, he didn't have much to work with. After a few hours of hunting, they had found only a couple of rabbits, a nest of bird's eggs and some scraggly plants. Enough for a normal Nedian, maybe, but not too large men who had expended a lot of energy. Decus in particular got through food as though he was setting it on fire rather than eating it. He also had no taste when it came to what was supposed to be edible - as long as it was well cooked, preferably almost to the point where it was charcoal, he liked it. Vesper had been forced to snatch the food away from him again before it reached that point. It wasn't that Decus' style of cooking would hurt him or be inedible to him - his own level of cybernetic augmentation left him with little that he couldn't eat. Food was just fuel for a machine, another form of energy. (He was running out of power, he reminded himself. There wasn't much he could do about that. He wouldn't find a charging station up on a mountain path, even in Nede.) However, he did have fairly sophisticated tastes and Decus' version of what counted as food tended to aesthetically disturb him. Admittedly, he was good at making the tea, but there wasn't any tea up here, only acrid herbs boiled in melted ice. There wasn't much alternative, though, so they ate and drank in silence, staring out over the cliffs. Decus seemed inordinately pleased with himself for almost immolating a rabbit. He always was happy when he was allowed to do the cooking. That made up for a lot.

After they ate, they lay down and tried to rest, Vesper pressed up against Decus for warmth.


	24. “Can you shut up!?”

Vesper couldn't sleep. 

He found it hard enough to do such mundane, biological things in the first place, and only bothered when he was truly exhausted and away from his usual resources for some reason. Lying still didn't come naturally to him. His cybernetic implants jerked, his legs twitching, his hands opening and closing reflexively, his targeting systems suddenly activating to alert him to slightest noise or sound.

Worse than that was Decus' snoring.

Vesper compared Decus' snoring to many things but no imagery really did it justice. For a start, most life forms did not occasionally breathe small jets of fire through their nostrils in their sleep. The noise he made as he did so was other than biological, had the quality of the rhythmic, angry rumbling Vesper had heard from the rocks as Decus argued with the Inferno King. He spoke in his sleep, too, words in an eldritch, primal language that charged the air with symbological energy with every syllable. Vesper was genuinely worried he would accidentally start casting his sleep. 

He also rolled over and grabbed Vesper in a crushing, flaming hug, whispering something nonsensical in his ear.

Okay, so he didn't really mind that part...


	25. “I don’t love you.”

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> (doing things a little out of order now as I had no inspiration that made sense for the strict next prompt in the series)

"I'm not fond of you either, Loki. You've not been a very gracious guest at all," Indalecio replied without looking around.

"Is that the best you can do," the man who looked like Cyril hissed at him, "Is it really your excuse? To accuse me of being a shapeshifting magician because perfect leader Indalecio couldn't possibly make a big enough mistake to make someone stop loving them? It must be everyone else's fault?"

"Actually, it's because you do an appalling Lucifer impression," the leader of the Wise Men sighed, "The real Cyril Lucifer would never admit to having ever loved someone. Or disclose any of his business or his real feelings. If the real Cyril Lucifer bore some sort of grudge against me, I'd find out when a knife was flying towards my back, or when some of the files on my computer system looked out of place."

"Oh, so now you don't think I am capable of changing my behaviour for the one I loved? That I am only capable of one action, like some sort of beast?"

"Make up your mind, Loki, either your sham Lucifer is annoyed at me for expecting different treatment or for expecting him to act the same as he always does. And yes, our natures are fixed, as a matter of fact. We are, after all, only computer programs, with very specific purposes." 

"Says the man who has corrupted and twisted his own purpose. Or is that more of a manufacturing defect, hm?"

"I definitely did not tell Lucifer that. He probably knows, of course, but he would not admit it, or call me faulty to my face. Your mask is cracking further," he sighed.

"Choose to believe your allies are shapeshifters, then. Maybe they all are. It won't look amiss among the usual levels of paranoia in this place."

"Which you intend to make worse, I suppose. You know, I had seriously intended to ally with you. I thought that if the price was right, you might be willing to stop betraying everyone for at least five seconds. Get out, or I will take my limiter off. Make no mistake that I am more than capable of defeating a God who is a long way from their home territory and in the realm of the truly uncaring Tria."

"As you wish," the man who may or may not be Lucifer bowed theatrically and teleported away, straight through the shields.

"I suppose Lucifer could have done that," Indalecio sighed, "In fact, you two are very similar, but you're ever so slightly, glaringly off."

As he reshuffled the papers that had been knocked off the floor by the minor shockwave of the teleportation, he wondered who else had been affected by the security breach and whether it would have any wider repercussions he particularly cared about.

As Vesper gently but firmly moved Decus' arm from around him, then stood up and quietly stepped away into the night, his body strangely unaffected by the flames...


	26. "You love me, right?"

Cyril Lucifer turned his head and glared at his leader. He knew it was disrespectful, that he shouldn't do that sort of thing to his face, but the question had taken him completely by surprise. He couldn't help but peer at Indalecio in a way that didn't hide that he suspected the man had finally gone insane from the many errors in his mind's software. 

"Whatever gave you that idea?" he replied, phrasing it in a way that could be interpreted either as a genuine question or an expression of incredulity. 

"I am asking the questions," Indalecio insisted. The tall redhead in the flowing white robes folded his arms with the same body language as if he had asked why Cyril was late in handing back a form he had been told to fill in. Like the whole thing was yet another everyday hassle that a leader had to deal with. 

I will have my revenge for being treated as though my love meant so little, Lucifer thought to himself.

"Say, as a theoretical exercise, that I do have some affection for you," he countered, "What would the consequences of this be, in your view? Do you expect me to sacrifice something important to me that you wouldn't otherwise get out of me?"

"And what do you imagine I am in the business of sacrificing?" Gabriel responded. He always had to answer a question with another question, always had to show who was in charge, even though he suddenly usurped control at the last minute in a way that he had no right to.

We are so similar, thought Lucifer, unable to hide a smile.

"No matter. To say 'I love you' creates a strict contract, and I'm sure we both know the risks of entering into a contract with either one of us. Besides, what bond between us could be higher than the purpose we all share, that which we were built for?" he tried to see a flicker of doubt or guilt in his leader's eyes but Indalecio's eerily perfect porcelain mask of a face showed no cracks.

"And as for my actions outside the formal contract, whether I have the necessary thoughts, feelings and behaviour of one in love... well, I'm biased, so I'll leave that decision to you. Unless you are also biased."

Meanwhile, Decus' snores cut off abruptly as he realised he was cold again...


	27. "I really need you."

Decus often tried to pretend it wasn't as bad as it actually was, but the truth was, he really didn't like the cold. 

He was always trying to overcome his weakness. He didn't believe that it was enough just to accept the fact that he was so heavily in tune with the element of fire that its opposite was anathema to him. He tried to increase his resistance to the cold using magical defences, both by turning his own internal power into wards, acquiring technology to protect him and generally getting stronger, faster and better able to control himself. Vesper was always praising him, lauding how much he'd improved. The truth was, quite a lot of it was an act he put on, the same way his brash nature and endless bad jokes distracted Vesper from the times he was desperately trying to stop his head exploding from the constant pressure of his fire-self being trapped inside a shell that didn't quite fit it.

Vesper didn't even know that the burns on his face still hurt. Not because the fire itself hurt him, but the contrast caused by other sensations on his face, the brush of wind or the chill of the night air. 

It hadn't hurt when Vesper was pressed close to him. When the reassuring weight and familiar smell of the other man was a reminder that he was not alone, that others were alive and well that he actually cared about.

Then he had just spotted Vesper walking away into the distance, his gait even more mechanical and silent than usual. Decus could feel something wrong in the air, something on the symbological spectrum, where only the will, the soul, could exist.

He was alone and confused and colder than he had ever felt in his life.


	28. “I’m not doing this.”

Around the time that Vesper regained enough self-awareness to work out that he hadn't been in control of his own actions for the last hour or so, he also realised he was horribly lost.

He had been chasing... what? A half-seen, flitting phantasm, like the shadows cast by one of Decus' flames? A sudden, urgent notion, undefined but irresistable, telling him that he had to run, that he had to leave Decus before it was too late, so that he would have the chance to pursue this life that was so much better than the uncertain future they were heading towards. Something as fragile and fleeting as a butterfly...

Tria above, he suddenly thought, did I hurt Decus? He couldn't remember whether he had said anything, left the man a note, whether Decus had even been roused from sleep by his sudden leaving. Had he been left to wake up on his own, or sleep on, vulnerable and unaware of what might be lying in wait for him... Decus was not exactly what one would call a vulnerable little flower but he wasn't so great at less than concrete threats, problems he couldn't just solve by setting them on fire, enemies he couldn't necessarily find out were enemies until he was too late.

That thing... the one that lured him away... was it coming after his partner too? Why did it care so much about separating the two? Was it just a predator's instinct telling it that the two were so much more dangerous when they were together, or...?

It could be lots of things, or people. They both had powerful enemies, some of them former allies. He had to get back, but he was so far away, and...

How had he managed to screw up his communicator so badly?.


	29. “I really want you.”

"I'm sorry, I can't get in touch with him at all," said Zadkiel Ruprecht, his youthful face showing real regret. Camael and Rafael had been too busy to answer - something about scouring the database and specifically the building security systems for any signs of intrusion, possibly magical. Negotiations with Loki had turned hostile, the boy admitted, although he had been warned to under no circumstances tell 'those traitors'. ('Now you will see his true colours,' Decus had told him, 'And you will be glad you signed no contracts and revealed no secrets to him.') Fortunately for Decus, the third member of the intelligence team had been told to stay behind in their room just in case it was infiltrated while two of them were away.

"I am supposed to be the one who wrecks the equipment," Decus mused.

"It feels more like he's deliberately jammed his communicator," explained Ruprecht, "Did you two have an argument?"

"We were asleep," replied the pyromaniac, scratching his head, "Could it look as if he had jammed it, were a skilled hacker to attack his systems?"

"Are you suggesting that our problems have the same origin? If it's really Loki, could he do that? Both of us at the same time, even though we're so far away and not connected properly..."

"He is, for all intents and purposes, a God," said Decus, "And we have angered him. Okay, so I have angered him. But the alternatives were worse, you have to believe me..."

"I'm not blaming you, Michael. I believe you that this man never had any intention of negotiating honestly. Although I'm not sure why you're such an expert... I don't suppose you know what to do about it?"

Decus shook his head, "He could be anywhere. He could be anything. There is... another friend... who has known him for a lot longer, but we recently did not part ways in the best of moods, so I don't know if I'd just get myself into worse trouble."

"I won't ask your business out there."

"Thank you," said Decus, his voice breaking up slightly, "I... if you do get in contact with Vesper again, tell him that I really, really want him. It isn't just dependence. Tell him that... I'm staying focussed by dreaming of warming him up at night."

Decus could almost see the youth's blush as his voice spluttered. He cackled wildly.


	30. “You don’t want me.”

Decus started and whirled around, glaring. He barely resisted the urge to spring backwards and launch a giant fireball right at the intruder's face. How the heck had they managed to get right behind him without him noticing? Didn't he have combat sensors any more or had they, like virtually everything else, shorted out from the heat?

He blinked. It looked like Vesper but it didn't feel like him, and his cybernetics certainly hadn't registered an ally in the area. They wouldn't do, if Vesper had been turning his systems off, but Decus suspected it was more than that.

And now the person who may or may not be Vesper was saying he didn't want Decus.

"I have never seen him pull away from me," mused Decus.

"Oh, I can endure it. My sensory filters can block out the smell and the grating voice, and I'm sure the scars intimidate a lot of people. The scary, crazy pair, the fire fetishist and the cyborg who hoards petrification victims, and the things everyone knows they get up to when they're left on their own. There's a reason nobody comes up to our floor," he mused. His voice was exactly the same but Decus had never heard such twisted, cruel words said in that tone, even to an enemy, "It's always been useful, and I'm willing to go on pretending if you are. But now we're out here in the wilderness, where everything in our lives is gone, where the structures that kept us dependent on each other are collapsing... it's taken me a long time to fully realise. Turning off the necessary devices was painful for me."

"Then, if that is even Vesper's real body, I will hurt you, Loki," declared Decus, flames building up around his fists. 

"Yes, Loki is so convenient to blame on everything, isn't he? If you want to believe that this relationship is perfect, that it always mends itself, and any exception to the rule must be the work of a shapeshifting devil, then go ahead. As I said, it all works out a lot better like this."

"Then why say any of this at all? Why break this illusion you claim is all that exists between us?"

"To make sure that I could, really. It's always best not to get fully caught up in your own lie, even though it's more convincing that way."

Decus forced his scanners to work properly, to detect any sign that this wasn't the real Vesper. He knew in his soul that this wasn't him, but then, if what the man said was true, their bond had all been a very convincing mutual deception, and this conviction that the man standing before him couldn't possibly be Vesper might be yet another self-delusion. 

Still, if this was really Loki's fault and he believe the trickster God, the consequences would be worse.

Although, there was a more pressing question:

If this was Loki, could he even fight something that looked like Vesper?


	31. “Let me help you.”

"It doesn't have to be like this," said Loki. He wasn't pretending now, probably because the look on Decus' face said that he was so furious, he was close to immolating the face before him even though they bore the likeness of his lover. Despite the size difference, the Trickster God could almost believe he was looking into the eyes of a fire giant about to go into the berserk frenzy that would initiate the end times.

But this was something potentially more dangerous...

"You won't survive out here with just the two of you," Loki told him, trying to keep his tone free of both fear and mockery, choosing one more soothing, suited for talking to an equal who was being irrational and needed to see sense. He hoped the fire-wreathed cyborg wouldn't interpret it as patronising. He didn't possess the intellect of a God who discussed the secrets of the Universe with Odin but there was no need for him to know that right now.

"You aren't leaving here alive either," said Decus, "They'll need a shovel to cart your ashes back. If I don't snort them for fun. Do I inherit your powers if I do that?"

Loki winced at the man's complete lack of subtlety in battlefield insults, "Your leader's plan was doomed from the start and you know it. You'll end up annihilating the Universe and not in a way that lets you build your own empire from the ashes."

"Surtur warned me never to let you open your mouth."

"Surtur can't get you what you want either. You're something other than just a fire giant trapped in a mortal body and you know it. Just burning yourself out would be a waste."

"I need neither. Vesper and I, we have each other." 

"You're going to take on Gods vying to be the first to end the world with nothing but your feelings for each other? You think it hasn't been tried already countless times? Good grief, you're naive sometimes," Loki shook his head, "Aren't you even the least curious about what you really are?"

This is hopeless, thought Loki, and he's getting ready to attack. Swiftly, the God darted forwards and embraced his startled foe. He planted a fierce kiss on Decus' lips. The fire hurt like stabbing himself in the face.

On top of a rock, watching in horror, was the real Vesper.


	32. “You’re such a bitch.”

People tended to forget Vesper was there when they saw Decus. It was the single most common way for intruders to die in their presence. Loki hadn't even factored in how dangerous an enraged Haniel could truly be. 

"FOR FUCK'S SAKE, MICHAEL!" roared Vesper as he roared down from the cliff edge on his mini-jets, straight at Loki. Volleys of homing micro-missiles screamed towards the God, gouging out sections of the cliff face where he swerved at the last instant and they slammed into the mountain. Lasers lanced through the sky, narrowly missing Loki's head. A much larger laser suddenly shot towards him, roaring like Fenrir. Loki barely got out of the way in time and he felt it brush against his arm, its heat surprisingly mild and painless. The arm went numb and felt heavy. He felt a sudden rising panic as his magical defences surged through his system, making him feel quite ill as they desperately fought to eject the petrification curse. 

Then the cyborg bodily slammed into him, pounding with fists made of a magic-infused metal much stronger than titanium. He felt the heat rise as Decus tried to join in but Vesper snarled a warning and aimed a boot at his face.

"How DARE you! Can you seriously not tell me apart from a shapechanging impostor? Most of his cybernetics weren't on!" 

"It is not what it looks like," protested Decus. A bolt of tainted divine magical energy almost took Vesper's right arm off, so he threw out a Cure All symbol. 

"No, maybe you knew all along, and were just curious about the pretty God who could give you all the things I can't!" he snapped, punching Loki in the face.

Decus shook his head desperately, "I was forced..."

"YOU? Were forced by this idiot?" Vesper snorted his disbelief.

"Now, now," Loki sneered, still able to taunt and confuse despite the blood running down his borrowed face. Vesper did not seem at all fazed by the appearance of savagely attacking himself, the God noticed. He used up some of his precious essence to shift into the likeness of Decus, "Just admit you're jealous. Maybe you would like to play, eh?"

"Never use that face or that voice again!" snarled Vesper. With a whine, his Mind Blast laser began to charge up again. 

Time for me to leave, thought Loki. I've caused enough chaos. I've won.


	33. “I can do this.”

As the faint residues of a teleportation spell dissolved back into the ether, Decus wiped the charred, stinking ectoplasm of a fake body off his face and spat in disgust. Tastes like snogging a slug, he thought to himself, how can some people get off on that?

"That was cast at a very high power level," noted Vesper as he released the valves that cooled off his jets, one by one. He had risked burnout by throwing everything he had against his opponent, knowing that Loki also took the name of a divine being for good reason, "He could be anywhere in the galaxy. Assuming he even stopped there."

"I'm so sorry," Decus bowed his head, hissing through his teeth, "Will you forgive me?"

Vesper drew out a theatrical sigh, "If it was ANY other person... but Loki is as bad as our Lucifer... maybe worse... but I'm worried about you, Decus. That you aren't prepared for the sort of thing the world will throw at you now we're in the wild."

"Huh? We're still being harrassed by politics from back home," Decus pointed out, "Besides, where were you when this was happening? Why'd you wander away from camp in the middle of the night? Gone to pick flowers for me?"

"Um... I..." Vesper stopped and shook his head. He blinked. What the hell had he been doing? He had been following something, something that felt like a threat, but... what had it been?

"I think you were duped as much as I was," Decus folded his arms, "But it's okay. The same thing's been happening to everyone, even Lucifer and the boss. It's only the intelligence trio it doesn't work on. By the way, they were trying to contact you about it. Why the hell was your communicator off?"


	34. “You think you’re funny?”

Despite his own protests, Decus still felt guilty about the whole thing. Vesper could tell because the man kept trying to cheer him up. The Decus version of trying to cheer someone up involved a constant stream of 'jokes', which usually meant barely coherent rambling interspersed with screeching laughter. As far as he could tell, most of it was about fire, about setting people on fire, about his personal top ten experiences of setting people he didn't like on fire, some of it in a lot more graphic detail than Vesper wanted to know. A lot of it was more subversive than even Decus, who was considered too insane to count when it came to social norms and the constant small battles for slightly more status than the next person, dared to voice when they were in the Tower. The focus of his intended murderous arson changed from Cyril to Indalecio before going back to Loki, then defaulting to the usual Claude, Dias, Ashton and someone called 'The Player' who sounded like some kind of voyeur.

Sometimes Vesper wished the man would shut up for five seconds but then the silence set in and he missed the comforting voice.


	35. “Hey, I said stop!”

"Do not tamper with my cybernetics without permission!" snapped Vesper, brushing Decus' hand away.

"I was improving it," the man sulked, folding his arms.

"What do you know about cybernetics that I don't? You'll melt something again!"

"I was welding it."

"We don't weld with flames hot enough to immolate the person you're welding the thing to. There's a reason I fix your cybernetics and you don't go anywhere near mine."

"You never let me do anything for you," Decus pouted.

"You're the stronger of us, so you protect me. And you make the tea."

"So I'm a guard dog and a maid?"

"Oh, now you're just being silly," Vesper wrapped his arms around the other man's waist and pulled him in close, looking him deep in his one Nedian-looking eye and the slightly demonic, slightly mechanical one, "You know exactly what you are to me. Is there something else in particular you want to take responsibility for, something that won't end up with me on fire?"

"No burning? Spoilsport," Decus cast his eyes down coyly.

"What about learning more practical magic, other than military-grade fire spells? You're already the healer. You're the better mage. You need to branch out."

"But I love fire."

"Then learn more cooking spells, light spells, or how to heat someone to a comfortable level - maybe treat hypothermia. Maybe we could market it. It'll be like the fire insurance days before Cyril made us stop."

"Yes, your ideas are good," Decus mused, "Maybe we can use them, when all of this is over. When we can settle down and be a real family."

"I beg your pardon?" Vesper frowned.

"Do you not sometimes think of such things? And I thought you were the serious one," Decus grinned, "But then, I am the strategist here."


	36. “Will you marry me?”

"Decus, there isn't even a ceremony for that."

"Yes there is. Men have been able to marry men since three thousand years before Nede was transferred to energy. In some regions, I could even marry you if you were an android rather just than a heavily cybered..."

"I'm aware of this. But there's still nothing for Wise Men in particular, and we aren't considered legally Nedian. We're too genetically divergent," explained Vesper, "Did you know that we technically don't have inherent rights? We're only not denied them because we're strong enough to take them for ourselves. For all their talk of us being cruel despots, if we were the way were are but weaker..."

"Then we don't ask them," said Decus, grinning, "We make our own ritual, as separate people with our own culture."

"And they will come after us and we will go to war together," mused Vesper, "That might have been a good idea from the start. Cyril and Indalecio talk of reclaiming what's theirs, but by now, it isn't ours. But we're going to conquer it anyway and make it ours, as an outside force looking to bring in a new age."

"Vesper? Our marriage will not be about fighting or about Indalecio," Decus told him sternly. Vesper had never seen him look so serious, "It is about us and our love. If you leave it up me, you know, I will not even invite Indalecio or Cyril."

"You'll let me invite Nicolus and the boys, though, right?"

Decus nodded, "And Shigeo and Marsilio and Berle are allowed, I suppose."

"If you're not careful, Shigeo will catch the bouquet."

"And Israfel and also Remiel..."

"You're going to invite Filia and not Indalecio? You're asking for trouble!"

"Oh, go on! I'll let you invite Welch."

"If you insist."


	37. “Wanna go out sometime?”

"Whyever would I want to do such a thing? I'm perfectly capable of accessing any information about anywhere in the galaxy I wish to from right here in this terminal," said Nicolus Camael, pointing to his headset, "I'm practically there, with the level of virtual reality software Cyril built for me."

"You shouldn't trust that, you know," added Jibril Rafael. The hooded figure rarely said anything. When she did deign to speak, people tended to immediately listen to find out what the emergency was.

"It isn't same as experiencing it for yourself, anyway," said Ruprecht, "Like when Marsilio took me to see Fun City. I had candy floss and ice cream and we were complimented on how satirical our choice of costumes were..."

"That wasn't a compliment, Ruprecht," said Jibril.

"But the point is, you can't replicate the true experience of being there, no matter how good your VR is."

"What prompted this all of a sudden? Have you been inspired by monitoring those two on their little adventure?"

"You shouldn't spy on them," added Jibril. Ruprecht blushed. He knew Nicolus just wanted someone to make sure the two were okay - they had quite a few people trying to sabotage their journey so far - but some of the things they did together, he agreed should really be kept private.

"Their reasoning's sound, though. We should all be getting out more. Especially the intelligence team. What good is all this information without context?"

"And he wants candy," added Jibril. Ruprecht glared at him.

"Since when were you telepathic as well as having weird floaty antimatter powers?"

"You're drooling."

"You may be right. Now is the time to leave. Or at least to have plans in place in case we are forced to. And we can watch them even closer."


	38. “I don’t want this.”

"Mind being more precise?" Indalecio tapped his fingers on his desk.

"This... any of this," Cyril swept his arms around. Indalecio's brow furrowed with irritation, "Whatever the hell you're trying to achieve. Draining all our power, using up all of our resources to try and fix this one huge device that's not use to us whatsoever except as a deterrent that keeps us in a stalemate. If that's even the truth any more. From what I know of high-tier symbological technology, you're trying to actually prime that thing to go off with us closest to it."

"I seem to remember me being in charge here," his tone was dangerous.

"Barely, and your authority is trickling away. Admit it. No, I'm not trying to depose you, stop casting that on me. If I was plotting against you, believe me, I wouldn't come right out and say it unless you were already surrounded. No, this place is barely occupied any more. There are ten of us and we're missing five. Or did you even notice that the Intelligence Team are gone?"

"They are permitted to enter and leave as they wish."

"Yes, but they never do, until now. Just after Decus and Vesper left. Do you think it's really a coincidence? You do know they've been contacting the two missing agents, don't you? And we don't really know what Decus' team are ever up to. They practically never return to base. The only ones left in here are you and I. Yet you still refuse to leave your room."

"I told you I'm busy. You're supposed to have work to do as well. Or do I have to do everything by myself these days?"

"It won't be long until you very well might," warned Cyril.

Indalecio already missed him as he left.


	39. “You always this quiet?”

A silent Decus felt wrong, so wrong that Vesper actually sneaked up behind him and poked him with a stick to make sure he was still alive. The resulting screech and blazing inferno was reassuring, even if had undone all the repairs he had just done to his armour. 

He hadn't been silent yesterday. In fact, yesterday he had been using the fact that Vesper had said yes as an excuse to set off fireworks with his usual careful, well thought out approach to fire safety, i.e. he had spread them all out in a circle, stood in the middle and Spiculed them. To be fair, the circle had been a beautiful labyrinth pattern and Decus had offered to carry him through the maze and officiate their relationship with a baptism of fire. Vesper had been forced to say that, while it sounded romantic, he wasn't sure he had good enough defences to survive something like that. Decus had sulked but not that much. 

No, Decus wasn't right. Please don't let him have caught cold, Vesper prayed to Tria. Sleeping next to a sneezing Decus was like having a pet dragon. 

And please don't let it be something even worse...


	40. “Are you fucking insane!?”

"My fiance is quite right," Decus folded his arms, "It is very irresponsible to just leave Fienal Tower like this. Do we have anyone left at all to stop intruders stealing all my valuables? You have not left Berle there all alone, have you?"

Cyril just stood there, gobsmacked. Indalecio's eyes were blazing with barely disguised fury. Vesper double checked that his limited was still in place, a tiny device that clipped onto his mic headphones.

"I was talking to you, Decus," Vesper sighed, "Why the hell did you tell most of Fienal Tower where we are? Why our bosses in particular? Why behind my back when I was asleep? Was this what you were so silent about?"

"It was supposed to be a surprise," he pouted, "I thought you would be happy to see everyone's faces again. I have been missing them, despite what I say about them. We are all connected, you know, all of us, with a very strong bond. And this will give everyone a chance to see that it is okay for us to feel real love as well. Can you not see the way Cyril looks at Indalecio..."

"Do you actually have a deletion wish?" their leader snapped. 

"Personally, I'm rather fascinated," admitted Cyril. There was mocking in his voice - Vesper was sure he saw the whole thing as ridiculous just because it was about the two of them in particular - but at least Indalecio's eyes softened slightly as his second-in-command stepped forward to investigate the strange shrine, burning all sorts of colours like a meadow of fiery flowers, that Decus had made for his mate. Because apparently he's a bower bird now, Vesper sighed. 

"This is all about thinking of our long term future. Don't you see?" Cyril smiled. Vesper saw Indalecio's teeth set on edge at the words 'long term'.

"We do not need to think about our goals after our task is completed, Lucifer," Indalecio's voice went cold, "We are tools for that specific task. We have no need to even exist after we have finished."

"Ah, but was our task not to rule? Being immortals, does it not make sense that we rule forever? How do we exert our will upon others when we do not have a complete sense of self or long term purpose?"

Indalecio glared at him. Savouring the reaction, Cyril's smile only grew broader.


	41. “I don’t want you.”

"You are extraneous, do you understand?" Indalecio snapped, "A command module for a unit that already has a better one."

"Ah, but it is only a prototype, with many flaws needing to be ironed out."

"A newer and more efficient model when the old one was growing slow and incompatible to today's needs," countered Indalecio, "There is only so much you can upgrade something so fundamentally out of date..."

"Actually activated long enough ago to still remember the original mission statement, never mind any context leading up to it, you mean?" Cyril smiled, "Oh, but I forgot, you aren't just yourself, are you? There's part of you that isn't even one of us."

"Your arguments are of no concern, in any case. The chain of command cannot be altered. Our programming is fundamental, even though all my soldiers appear to be too faulty to show proper discipline these days."

"I wonder where the bugs crept in, hm? Ah well, patches that didn't work out can be rolled back."

"People! This is not a day for fighting!" Decus shrieked at the top of his voice, punctuating the order with a conflagration that almost caught Ruprecht in the blast, "This is a celebration of love! Do any of you understand love? I see how you look at the main computer, Nicolus!"

"It is true," admitted the old man. Ruprecht blushed.

"Can you truly say you have no feelings for each other, Indalecio, Cyril?" insisted Decus, ignoring the murderous looks he was given by both his commanding officers.

"Do we look like we do?" Cyril snapped.

"But you argue so passionately..."

"I could have you deleted right now," warned Indalecio.

"But could you? All of me? You're sure of this, that there would be nothing else underneath you did not want to reveal?"


	42. “I’m not wearing that.”

"But it's traditional," said Shigeo, barely containing the urge to break out into half-mechanical sadistic laughter, "Look, Marsilio is wearing his!"

"Marsilio looks good in his," Berle pointed out, staring down at the beautiful purple and white silk kimono with floral patterns intricately hand-stitched in a stripe down one length. It looked ridiculous on the full body cyborg who wore a riot police helmet to conceal his features from the people of Fun City. He was a little worried the material would snag and tear on his heavy armour, "And I doubt this will be a traditional Nedian wedding. I heard something about Decus making up his own ceremony to start a new Wise Man tradition. It's bound to involve lots of fire. Are you sure you want to buy expensive new clothes when they're bound to get scorch marks on them?"

"I think he's right. That style doesn't suit him at all," Marsilio commented. he was still struggling to work out how to wear his broadsword with his new outfit, which had a lot more material than the usual practically nothing he wore.

"Okay, let's try the women's style on him."

Berle sighed and resigned himself to his fate.


	43. “Sorry, were you sleeping?”

The system alert noises for the Fienal Tower central computer were notoriously loud. An error message could be a notification of a genuine life or death emergency for the Wise Men who were mostly made up of computer programming, especially the intelligence team who spent most of their lives directly neurally connected to the systems. Nicolus, who spent even more time than the others wired up to the system, had customised the various noises to his aesthetic requirements and volume levels as an old man who was hard of hearing and whose audio enhancement cybernetics were even getting a bit old. 

He didn't usually have them at full volume for health and safety reasons. Waking up a Wise Man who was slacking off at work and more importantly, at one of the most important moments of his best friend's life, one that would probably end up being a fire hazard in some way, was a good enough cause to sacrifice a little of his hearing or blow his internal speakers or both.

"Now, now. Children shouldn't use words like that," he chided Ruprecht as the boy fell off his seat with a yelp and a tirade of expletives. 

Decus laughed.


	44. “This was never right.”

"Oh, it needs some improvement, but I think it's a good start," remarked Marsilio, "Obviously, by the time we have ours, I will expect it to happen in Centropolis town square, right outside the Government building, and not a rock in the middle of the endangered wildlife area."

"That is not what I meant, Zaphkiel," Jophiel sighed, "I meant, our overall goal as Wise Men. Whatever it is our objective is supposed to be. I have never stopped to think about it because I was content to go along with whatever it was, as long as I got to create havoc and slaughter whomever I please. However, I began to realise we have no self-respect, no identity beyond being seen as generically evil, one level of command does not talk to another... and what exactly do you mean, 'by the time we have ours'?"

"Proper weddings require preparation, not randomly stopping on top of a mountain and setting fire to things. For instance, we have to get official wedding kimonos..."

"For one who talks about preparation, you sprung this on me very suddenly!" 

"Oh, I'm sure the big bad butcher of the Ten Wise Men can cope," Marsilio grinned wickedly.


	45. “You look really tired.”

Indalecio answered with a long, drawn-out, world-weary sigh, "Yes, yes I am. We have spent literal billions of years waiting for this moment, yet now it has fallen apart, and nobody even..."

The leader suddenly turned around, realising for the first time who he was talking to. He was expecting Camael, maybe Haniel, although Haniel was probably off somewhere with his spouse. Possibly Lucifer, although it didn't sound like his second-in-command's constantly mocking voice. 

"Metatron? I thought you were..."

Back home, protecting the Tower, like the guarding machine you are. If I had remembered you even existed... 

I'm forgetting everything.


	46. “I’m out of here.”

"Where are you going?" asked Shigeo. 

"Back to the Tower," replied Berle. His face hidden under his visor, most of what was visible also heavily cybernetically augmented, it was near impossible to read his emotions. He had simply announced he was leaving and begun to slowly walk off without further ceremony. 

"Do you not wish to participate in the celebrations? And after I had a kimono tailored to fit over your armour."

"I should not be off duty. I am the Tower's guardian," said the heavily armoured Wise Man, "The Tower is our home. Our sanctuary from the outside world. A sanctuary requires protection."

"You have a lot of faith that we will return. Decus and Vesper are married now. A married couple often leaves home."

"In which case, I must make it clear to them that they can always return if it becomes necessary. A stable rock upon which to fall back on. That is what family is to a married couple, yes?"

"Berle... you've always kind of gotten what we're about a lot more than the others, haven't you? You don't talk much, but you're pretty smart."

Berle turned around to see Ruprecht's smiling face.

He walks home.


	47. “You need to go.”

"I refuse," Decus stated flatly.

"Michael, you have something to protect now. Both of you have each other to protect. Your loved ones. Fienal Tower is not a place of love," said Marsilio, "It is falling apart. Like the Tower of the Tarot, it will destroy itself and everything around it when it collapses. If just two of us get out..."

Decus shook his head, "We are the Ten Wise Men, not the Eight. And our bond is stronger than that. I have a responsibility, as the one who healed myself and my love. If I have a chance of mending the Tower, I must return and try my best."

Marisilio chuckled, "You, Decus Michael, are the last one I would expect to straight out and declare they were the voice of love among us."

"Then you do not see me. You only see the destruction," he said, "But there is so much more to fire. Warming, giving energy, inspiring and setting hearts racing..."

"And to turn it to stone is to enshrine it forever," finished Vesper, appearing at his lover's side. 

"Then let it endure longer than the time we have waited," replied Marsilio before they all headed home.


End file.
